LADY ELIZABETH AND HER DETRACTORS. 157 
since. All kinds of sinister reports were circulated. She 
had been poisoned; she had been pulled ; she had been 
trained to death. Nor were these all; for amongst innumer- 
able insinuations then in circulation too base for repetition 
here, it was pretty freely said that every man in the stable, 
as well as every friend of those in it, had made a muni- 
ficent fortune by rascality at the expense of the ever- 
confiding and credulous British public; which had been 
unblushingly and grossly victimised, and as usual left to 
grumble and bear it. 
But when we come to the facts of the case, we find that 
nothing was ever put forward to show that the mare was 
either improperly treated or neglected in any way. And I 
think that we have a right to assume that there was no 
ground for the complaints ; but rather that credit should be 
given to those in charge of her for assiduity in everything 
that skill or experience could suggest for her well-being, and 
that the whole mystery may be summed up in these few 
words: no robbery took place, nor was one ever contem- 
plated ; the mare had simply lost her form—she was not so 
good as a three- as she was as a two-year-old. 
Nevertheless, although I myself and others whose veracity 
cannot be doubted, may assert that she lost her form or her 
temper, I an? aware it is not easy to make incredulous people 
see the matter in the same light. Therefore, for the benefit 
of these unbelievers, I will add a word or two more. If any 
one actuated by dishonest motives, or the inordinate love of 
gain, took advantage of the opportunities to his hand in the 
Derby, it is yet impossible for the boldest of these declaimers 
of the sins of others to assert that any sordid motives could 
influence the mare’s running in subsequent races; and in 
these it was equally bad. This fact should be of itself 
